Shihad’s Phil Knight: “We wanted to do a heavier album”

Shihad
(Image credit: Press/Supplied)

If you’re lucky enough to have had the unique privilege of watching Shihad perform live, you’ll know it’s an experience unlike any other. The raw, visceral passion with which the Kiwi rockers translate their tight, cerebral musicality – it’s like watching Hollywood’s version of the perfect metal gig, where it sounds intense and chaotic, but the performance itself isn’t a beat off-step.

Shihad have always been a band whose live energy is palpable on record – at least in the case of the first stack of records – but with album ten, Old Gods, they’ve gone beyond just capturing that energy. Here, we see Shihad in their rawest, most authentic form. It’s bare-bones, balls-to-the-wall volatility – four guys and their instruments, and a whole lot of pent-up rage to thrash out.

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Ellie Robinson
Editor-at-Large, Australian Guitar Magazine

Ellie Robinson is an Australian writer, editor and dog enthusiast with a keen ear for pop-rock and a keen tongue for actual Pop Rocks. Her bylines include music rag staples like NME, BLUNT, Mixdown and, of course, Australian Guitar (where she also serves as Editor-at-Large), but also less expected fare like TV Soap and Snowboarding Australia. Her go-to guitar is a Fender Player Tele, which, controversially, she only picked up after she'd joined the team at Australian Guitar. Before then, Ellie was a keyboardist – thankfully, the AG crew helped her see the light…